Scientific research and historical learning are considered as being the main pillars of a modern society. Individual thinking, independent reflection and creativity are stimulated, thereby promoting education and development. Egypt also includes innovation and scientific research as one of its aspirations in its "Egypt Vision 2030” national agenda. In a country where over 40% of the population is under 18, a modern education system which provides space for research and historical reflection is a particularly essential foundation for the positive development of emerging generations.
With this goal in mind, the Goethe-Institut Cairo together with the Egyptian Ministry of Education are launching the "Discovering History” project. Pupils aged between 10 and 17 will be encouraged to learn history through research and discovery. The project offers children and young people the opportunity to gain a personal connection to the diverse history of their own country. In particular, looking into the past can help to understand today's events and challenges for Egyptian society and to better perceive and classify different interpretations of historical events.
In a first step, workshops and training sessions for Egyptian history teachers, representatives of the Egyptian Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Antiquities will be conducted with various partners, such as the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen and the Friedrich-Schiller University Jena. They will be trained as tutors for research-discovery teaching methods so that they can best support the pupils in preparing their entries for the history competition. The possible formats as well as the evaluation criteria of the competition will be jointly determined within the framework of a kick-off event. The tutors will simultaneously play the role of multipliers and will disseminate the learned knowledge through regional teams in Delta, Alexandria, Cairo and Upper Egypt.
History competition
Following the model of the German Federal President History Competition (which is run in Germany by the Körber Foundation), Egyptian young people will take a step back from rigid memorisation and learn to independently formulate questions about the past, as well as to question it through their own research - for example by using local sources, conducting eyewitness interviews or visiting historical sites. The selected methods will not come from history books but instead from research-based learning.
The nationwide history competition will be launched Mid-March 2022. Egyptian students can participate by preparing and submitting entries alone or in groups.
In autumn 2022 the three best entries at the national level will be honoured as national prize winners in an award ceremony at the Goethe-Institut Cairo. The works of the national award winners will be also presented in three-minute videos. The videos are part of the award and will serve to publicise the history competition on the homepage and through social-media.
Discovering history is a project of the Goethe-Institut and supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.
Tutorial Videos
Guide for Students
Our first tutorial video explains the idea of the competition to children and young people and shows the individual steps for applying or submitting the entries.
Guide for Teachers
In this video, we clarify the role of the teachers in the competition, while simultaneously giving the teachers tips on how they can help the students in their research journey.
Our guide contains all the details of the competition and sets out the requirements, steps and various tips and tricks for creating the entries for both teachers and students. The guide serves as a great support on the way to the development, completion and submission of the competition entries.
Prof. Dr. Christian Kuchler, Professor of Teaching and Social Sciences at the RWTH Aachen University, wrote the book "New Ways in History Teaching" with the aim of teaching history teachers modern and advanced teaching methods that will help them to make their history lessons interesting and instructive . The book was written after conducting numerous workshops between the German and Egyptian sides in the field of history education, during which there was a great exchange of experiences and points of view.
